OBJECTIVE To determine whether climate variability influences the number of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in infants, children, and adults in the city of Campo Grande, Brazil. METHODS We used daily data on admissions for respiratory diseases, precipitation, air temperature, humidity, and wind speed for the 2004-2008 period. We calculated the thermal comfort index, effective temper...

The Micro Rain Radar 2 (MRR) is a cost effective, minimum maintenance oriented, portable radar system used for conducting precipitation research. This system is prone to several draw backs such as lack of a sophisticated post-processing algorithm to improve its sensitivity, noise due to radar receiver and the lack of high quality Doppler radar moments. In this project work, we propose an improv...

The development of technologies based on the use of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to treat sulfate contaminated wastewaters has produced a cost-effective route to precipitate metals. In this work the effects of cadmium and manganese in the SRB growth rates were assessed. It was observed that duplication time is 50h in the presence of cadmium and 6h in the presence of manganese, thus showing t...

we report the fabrication of pure CeO2, ZnO and SiO2 deposited CeO2 hybrid core-shell nanoparticles by simple and cost effective co precipitation method. The as synthesized samples were characterized by various experimental techniques such as XRD (X-ray diffraction), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) and HRTEM (High Field Transmission Tunneling Microscopy) measurements. XRD results...

We propose a new method for the delineation of precipitation using cloud properties derived from optical satellite data. This approach is not only sufficient for the detection of mainly convective precipitation by means of the commonly used connection between infrared cloud top temperature and rainfall probability but enables the detection of stratiform precipitation (e.g., in connection with m...

An agronomic crop growth model—the Decision Support System for Agro-Technology Transfer—and a constant relative risk aversion utility function are used to examine corn irrigation strategies in Mitchell County, Georgia. Precipitation contracts are designed to help farmers manage risk. Three conclusions originate from the findings. First, the optimal irrigation strategy can greatly increase produ...

with respect to wide distribution of a. sieberi besser in iran, various studies have been done on its habitats and different ecological properties have been referred as effective factors in establishment of this species. in this research, we tried to study the ecological range of a. sieberi and its relationship with vegetative characteristics. therefore, climate properties including annual prec...

Common weaknesses of current drought indexes were analyzed. First, most of the current indexes are not precise enough in detecting the onset, end, and accumulated stress of drought. Second, they do not effectively take into account the aggravating effects of runoff and evapotranspiration, which build up with time. Third, they have a limited usefulness in monitoring ongoing drought because they ...

Radionuclide and metal contaminants such as Sr are present beneath U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) lands in both the groundwater (e.g., 100-N area at Hanford, WA) and vadose zone (e.g., Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory). In situ containment and stabilization of these contaminants is a cost-effective treatment strategy...